2 pols say they'll be armed back home

Several lawmakers are already changing their security arrangements in wake of the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.), and at least two lawmakers say they’ll now be packing firearms in public when they’re in their home districts.

Both Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) and Rep. Heath Shuler (D-N.C.) told POLITICO they will be carrying their guns in their home districts for protection. Both lawmakers hold a conceal and carry permit, but will not carry their weapons in the District of Columbia.

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Shuler, who received a serious death threat in 2009, says he is planning to carry his weapon more often and boost security at his district events. He’s even encouraging his staffers to get their own conceal to carry permits.

“You never think something like this will happen, but then it does,” Shuler said “After the elections, I let my guard down. Now I know I need to have [my gun] on me. We’re going to need to do a much better job of with security at these events.”

The Capitol Police are also reassessing lawmaker security both in Washington and around the country.

Chaffetz said he’s also going to pursue whether U.S. Marshalls – who usually guard federal judges – could be expanded to guard members of Congress as well during district events.

“Perhaps they could better assess threats in the home district,” said Chaffetz, who praised the work of U.S. Capitol Police. “It certainly ought to be on the table.”

Chaffetz says he may ask local police officers to drop in on his town hall meetings more frequently.

Chaffetz recently contacted Capitol Police to investigate a man who was canvassing his Utah neighborhood, asking questions. Since yesterday, he’s also received several threatening messages on his Twitter account, which he’s asked the police to look into.

“It’s unfortunate that these things happen, but if you’ve been in Congress any amount of time, you know we often get various threats,” he said.

Rep. Darrell Issa’s (R-Calif.) district office is busy installing a touchable keypad in order to protect its district workers from unannounced visitors. Issa’s office was the target of a bomb plot back in 2001. Issa, a California Republican, has since had a threat assessment conducted on his offices, according to his spokesman Kurt Bardella.

“I think what you’re going to see is a combination of the Sergeant at Arms and Capitol Police work with congressional leadership to do more threat assessments for district offices,” Bardella said.